Secrets
by Leap of Faith
Summary: When she decided to visit her childhood friend, she couldn't imagine that she would fall for one of his friends. Let alone, him falling for her. But she has lost something of value, can she get it back? And what is in Level J that she doesn't want them to


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Disclaimer: Everything belongs to their respective owners unless you don't recognize it, then it's mine.

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Secrets

By: Ms. Perfect

"Having been unpopular in high school in not just cause for book publications." - Fran Lebowitz

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"Please? I know he'll want to hear from me," a small blonde teenager said in a slightly whiny voice.

"Usagi..."

"Noin..." she mimed.

Noin sighed, relenting. "Fine. But _I'm_ dialing the number. I don't want you knowing it—"

"—Because it could put me in danger," Usagi droned. "In case you haven't noticed, me being here 'puts me in danger'."

Noin rolled her eyes and dialed the phone number.

"Winner Residence," a cheery voice said. "Oh! Hello, Miss Noin."

Noin smiled, "hello Quatre. Would you mind getting Duo? I have an old friend who wants to speak with him."

Confusion crossed Quatre's face before he disappeared. Moments later, the happy-go-lucky American plopped down in the seat.

"What's up Noin?" he asked.

Usagi smiled at the familiarity of the voice, though it was older than she remembered.

"I have an old friend of yours, Duo. Someone, I hear, you haven't seen since you two were five."

Usagi stepped around Noin.

"You look familiar," Duo said as if he was trying to place it.

"Du-du!" she cried, using her old nickname for him.

"Sam!" Duo said, his eyes wide.

Usagi grinned, "I go by Usagi now, Duo."

Duo let out a breath of surprise. "Wow... It's so great to see you again! Twelve years."

Usagi hesitated. "Great to see you, too, Duo."

"Hey, you should come visit! I'm sure the Q-man wouldn't mind."

Usagi turned to Noin, quietly asking, "Preventers doesn't need me for a while do they?"

"We'll call if we do, Usagi," Noin replied.

"Why would Preven—"

Usagi cut Duo off, "I'll come for a visit. And don't worry, Noin'll make sure I don't get lost."

Duo grinned. "I'll see you when you get here!" and then he was gone.

"You should have told him," Noin said.

Usagi closed her eyes and sighed. "He'll know soon enough, Noin."

~*~

"Sam is so cool!" Duo told the guys, or at least the one that was listening.

"How do you know Sam?" Quatre asked politely.

Duo looked like he was reminiscing in the past. "Sam was my best friend before I was taken in by the doctor."

Little did Duo know, however, is that the guys thought Sam was male.

~*~

"Who are you and who do you work for?"

Usagi felt the cold barrel of a gun pressed into the back of her neck. Quickly she turned around, which placed the barrel at her throat. "Tsukino Usagi and I... don't _exactly_ work."

"Hn..."

Usagi lifted her hand towards his face, but he caught it in his own.

"Do you mind?" Usagi asked, lifting the other hand.

For a brief moment, his face registered shock. _She's blind..._

Usagi turned her head, her arms dropping to her sides as she heard footsteps coming towards her.

"Sam!" Duo cried, enveloping her in a bear hug.

"Usagi," she gently corrected.

Duo grinned, "sorry. Old habits die hard."

"It's okay. It _is _a twelve year habit," Usagi replied.

"What's with the shades, Usagi? Practicing to be the next Blade?" Duo asked.

Usagi's face spasmed slightly, "I – I know I should have told you on the phone..."

"Told me what?" Duo inquired.

"Duo... Duo I'm blind."

"What?" Duo said in a shocked whisper.

Usagi removed the sunglasses to reveal glassy blue eyes. "When I hit my head the day you were leaving, something happened. The doctors say I can get my eyesight back, they just don't know how." Usagi could feel his pity. "Don't you dare feel sorry for me. I have lived with this for twelve years, I know what I'm doing."

Duo looked at her, then behind her to his stoic friend. "By the way, Usagi, this is Hiiro Yui."

"We met... sort of," Usagi said with a half-smile.

"He give you the 'who are you and who do you work for' speech?" Duo asked as Hiiro grunted and walked away, his eyes lingering on Usagi as he did.

Usagi's eyes followed Hiiro, even if she couldn't see him. There was something about him. Something that she liked.

"Even if I can't see," Usagi said to Duo. "I still know there is... something about him... I like it, whatever 'it' is."

"Oh no you don't. Usagi stay away from that one. I don't want to see you get hurt," Duo said, slipping back into the older brother mode he had used when they were children.

"Hurt? What do you mean?" Usagi asked, her glassy eyes staring into his cobalt blue ones.

Duo sighed and led her to her bedroom, slightly unnerved by her blank stare. "Usagi, he doesn't feel. Well, he feels, just not emotions. It's like he doesn't have them anymore."

Usagi shook her head. "He has them, Duo. You just don't know it... Anyway, I want to know what you look like."

"Um?"

Usagi grinned and brought her hands up to his face. Her fingertips glided over a strong chin, angular cheekbones and small lips. She put her hand through his hair, giggling when she felt the long braid. "It's gotten longer," she stated.

"I've been growing it out since I left," Duo replied. "So what did you see?"

"That my little Du-du," she grinned at the nickname again. "Isn't so little anymore. In my minds eye, you are handsome, Duo."

"Thanks," Duo said with a grin. "So, you wanna meet the guys?"

"You know it!" Usagi said, laughing.

~*~

"Hey guys! I want you all to meet Sam."

"Usagi," she corrected again.

"An Onna?" Wufei asked in surprise.

Usagi feigned shock. "Oh my god! I'm a woman?" she put a hand to her cheek, then playfully smacked Duo's arm. "Why on earth didn't you tell me I was a woman! And all this time..."

Quatre covered his mouth with a hand to hide his smile. However, he couldn't hide his laughter.

"I know that tone," Usagi said. She turned towards the laughing Arabian. "You're Quatre, right? The one Noin spoke with on the phone."

He looked at her in amazement.

"I don't need eyes to recognize a voice, Quatre-san."

Wufei's head snapped up. Why hadn't he seen it before? He could tell by the looks Trowa and Quatre had that they hadn't realized the girl-teen was blind.

"Gee," Usagi said. "I really know how to quite a room..."

"You always did," Duo replied. He led her to Trowa. "This is Trowa Barton."

__

Gundam Pilot 04, her mind supplied.

"And this is Chang Wufei," he said, leading her to Wufei.

__

Gundam Pilot 05.

Usagi smiled and nodded her head in greeting. "I've heard much about all of you from Noin and the other workers at Preventers."

"Why are you at Preventers?" Duo queried.

"That," Usagi said with a mysterious grin, "is none of your business."

The boys exchanged looks, questions hidden in their depths.

"So!" Usagi said loudly. "What's there to do around here?"

"Dunno. Usually I find Wu-man here to bother," Duo replied.

"Maxwell..." Wufei said with a hidden promise of a chopped off braid.

Usagi sat down on the arm of a chair when she felt around for it. She had a feeling things were about to get interesting.

"Wu-man! Wu-man! Wu-man!" Duo said just to annoy the Chinese teen.

Usagi heard Quatre sigh and who she guessed were Trowa and the Arabian leave the room. _This must happen often._

As she got up, Usagi could hear Duo and Wufei fighting. She put her hand on the wall, fingertips brushing over pictures, light switches, and closed doors. She hadn't a clue where she would end up until her fingertips fell into an open door.

"Hello?" she asked. She felt her way around the room – strings and hums sounding as she did. She grinned. A music room. She lifted her hand away and make her way to what she thought was the center of the large room. Making sure nothing was around that she would bump into, she started spinning like she had when she was child.

Spinning. Around and round until she was so dizzy she felt as if she would fall off the earth. Only when she had her final spin did she crash into something, or rather, someone.

She screamed in fright, yet it was cut off when a hand was placed over her mouth. Lifting her hand to feel whom she had bumped into, she felt the familiar feeling of another's hand encompassing her own. The hand was then lifted from her mouth.

"Hiiro..."

There was that butterfly feeling again.

Absentmindedly, for once, Hiiro rubbed his thumb across the girls' smooth hand.

"Hiiro," Usagi said again, knocking his out of his reverie.

"What?" he knew his voice sounded oddly gentle.

"May I see what you look like?" Usagi asked. Though, without waiting for his answer, she brushed his cheek with her free hand. She blushed slightly when she found herself lingering on his slightly chapped lips. His hair, she felt was smooth like silk and she fingered at the lock of hair that must always fall into his eyes.

"What do you see?" he said, almost in a whisper.

She smiled, still not removing her trapped hand from his gentle, yet firm, grip. "I see someone that makes me wish I knew how to regain my sight right this instant."

Unknown to her, Hiiros' cheeks reddened.

"Usagi?" Duo's voice called.

Hiiro dropped her hand instantly and stepped back. The warmth Usagi felt from the closeness of his body disappeared.

"Hiiro, will you meet me again?" Usagi asked quickly. Duo was getting closer.

"Where?" Hiiro heard himself asking.

"My room. I don't know if I'll find this one again."

Duo was now at the door. "There you are!"

Usagi thought quickly. "Uh, sorry for bumping into you. I can't really see where I'm going."

"Hai," Hiiro whispered before walking out of the room. Why had he agreed? He wondered what it was about this girl that was so... What did he want to say she was? _Intoxicating..._

"How'd you get in here, Usagi?" Duo asked, confusion laced in his voice.

Usagi grinned, "well. I have two feet and I'm pretty sure I know how to walk."

"What was with Hiiro? He seemed a bit odder than usual."

Usagi shrugged lightly, "I don't know. I just bumped into his on accident."

~*~

"Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be blind, Hiiro?" Usagi asked. It had taken him a week and a half to finally come to her room.

He looked at her, wondering if this was a trick question. "I'm not sure."

Usagi walked behind him then placed a scarf over his eyes. She tied it tight enough to stay in place. Then, she walked to the other side of the room, placing her bedside tables' chair in the path.

"What are you doing?" Hiiro asked. Usagi had somehow managed to get more words out of him when he was with her than he had ever said prior to her arrival.

"Letting you see the world through my eyes," Usagi said. "Now, walk towards my voice. Use all of your available senses."

Hiiro walked forward slowly. In any other case this would have seemed foolish, but this was intriguing.

"Come _towards_ my voice."

"How do you know I'm not?" Hiiro asked.

Usagi smiled. "I've been blind for twelve years, I'm an expert. Plus I put a chair in your way."

Hiiro then felt his shoe hit the chair leg. He moved around it, following the sound of her voice.

"This way, Hiiro," she said.

He turned his head to the left. She had moved. Finally, he untied the scarf and walked over to her.

She felt his presence in front of her. Reaching up, she could only feel his smooth skin. "Hey... You weren't supposed—"

He silenced her instantly. And this time, not with his hand. She gasped, giving him the opportunity to deepen the kiss.

Usagi melted against his body as she responded.

When he pulled away, his eyes held as much shock as Usagi felt. _I am the one that says to always follow your emotions..._ he thought.

"Not that I mind... but why did you do that?" Usagi asked once she had her breath back.

"I... don't know," Hiiro replied as he looked down at the short girl.

Usagi smiled. "Well then," she left her sentence hanging as she dragged his mouth down to hers again.

~*~

"Usagi, I – we have to go," Duo said.

"Go?"

"Noin just called, she says that we need to come to Preventers Headquarters a soon as we can," he explained.

"I'm coming with you," Usagi replied. She couldn't let anything happen to her work.

"No, you're staying here, Usagi," Duo said in a firm voice.

Usagi's eyes narrowed, "Duo, either you take me with now or I will find a way to get there later. The people there are like a surrogate family to me, please, Duo."

Duo relented finally at the sound of her pleading voice. "Fine, but stay right by my side. Don't even think of going out of my sight."

__

That's what he thinks. Usagi said in her mind as she nodded.

"Maxwell, what are you bring the onna for?" Wufei demanded.

Usagi could feel Hiiro's penetrating look. She knew he would hate her coming, he didn't want her to get hurt. "I'm coming whether you like it or not, Wufei."

~*~

"Usagi!" Noins' surprised voice said.

Usagi turned to the older woman. "Talk."

"They've infiltrated the lower levels. Some research has been taken and or destroyed."

Usagi's face went ashen.

"Without a doubt they still haven't gotten threw to Level J yet," Noin said, seeing the look on Usagi's face.

"What's on Level J?" Hiiro asked in his usual monotone. Usagi had almost forgotten what it sounded like.

"It's a Top Secret lab, and only one person in this entire building knows the password." Noin explained.

"Who?" Hiiro asked in his monotone again.

"Um... that would be me," Usagi answered.

Duo looked at her. "Why would you know the password?"

Usagi opened and closed her mouth, trying to find the right way to explain why she knew the password.

"That is not the topic at hand. We need to secure the area," Noin said.

Usagi smiled gratefully before slipping away from the group silent as the dead.

__

I wish I could see. Anyone could spring an attack on me any second. Usagi thought as she walked the familiar hallways to Level J.

"You!" a male voice called from behind Usagi.

She froze, then turned around. _ Oh shit..._

"Sir?" 

The man approached her. "What are you doing down here?"

"Uh..." Usagi said.

"Who is your commanding officer?" he demanded.

"Er... you?" Usagi hoped. She knew this wasn't one of the Preventers she was talking to so she did the only thing she could think of. She turned and ran down the hall. Usagi hated having to do that, but she couldn't fight very well at all, vision imparity or not.

"Hey!" the man yelled before she heard his heavy footfalls behind her.

She kept her fingers brushing the walls as she ran, couldn't have her running into a door or something else. No matter how fast she was, the man seemed to be faster. He caught up to her and dragged her to the ground in a tackle.

She yelled out in pain as her head hit the hard, cold floor. She let out another garbled yell when the man enclosed his hands around her neck, lifting her head from the ground.

"Why were you trying to get to Level J?" he asked.

Usagi tried to speak, but only a gasping noise came out. She clawed at his hands.

"Why!" he yelled, forcing her head down again.

She yelled as it hit, the pain was numbing. Usagi knew that could mean two things, either she was going unconscious, or she was dying. The latter seemed unlikely as she slipped into unconsciousness and the man slammed her head into the ground once more in frustration.

"Usagi!" Duo called out. They had disposed of all infiltrators and now were searching for their blonde companion.

"Duo, over here," Hiiro's voice echoed down the hall. Hiiro picked Usagi up, her eyes opening again briefly.

"Hiiro?" she asked before clutching to his shirt and falling into the familiar black void again.

"Usagi—" Duo cut off. He saw her clinging to Hiiros' shirt, not to mention the look in the normally stoic teens' eyes.

~*~

"Hiiro, just what was that all about?" Duo asked as they looked in the window of Usagi's room.

Hiiro's eyes never left the girl. The beeping of the heart monitor was annoying.

"Hiiro!" Duo almost yelled.

Finally he looked at Duo. "What?"

Duo sighed, "what was that all about?"

When Hiiro didn't reply, Duo pushed him against the wall. "Don't you dare hurt her, Hiiro, or I swear I will hurt you."

Hiiro glared at Duo. "I haven't done anything to her."

Duo sighed and let go of his normally stoic friend. "I'm sorry, man. It's just... well she's like a sister to me."

"I know," Hiiro replied in his normal monotone.

~*~

Usagi sat on the grass, twirling a dandelion in her forefinger and thumb. She could still feel the wrap around her eyes. The doctors thought that something might happen to her site if she didn't wear it. She had told them they were all quacks.

Finally, she threw down the dandelion and reached up to unravel the wrap. _Where is that stupid clip?_ She thought as she felt around her head for the small metal clasp. Her fingers fell across the cool metal and she unclasped it. Unwrapping her head the opposite direction that it had been enclosed, she let the cloth fall.

"Ow..." she said, squinting at the brightness from the sun before putting her head down. Blinking a few times, she raised her head once more.

"Oh wow..." she whispered. Suddenly smiling to herself, she knew that one day she should find the man that had yelled at her near Level J, thank him, then kill him. He had given her back her eyesight.

"Usagi?" Hiiros voice called from behind her.

Usagi turned her head towards him, gasping.

"What?" Hiiro asked. He stood next to her as she stood up. Something was different... he just couldn't place what.

Usagi ran her fingertips over his face must like she had so long ago. "Hiiro..."

"Usagi?" he asked with confusion in his voice.

"You look just like my minds eye picture. Only – in color," she said.

Hiiro did a double take, then looked at her eyes. They were no longer glassy looking; now they were pure crystalline blue.

"I can see, Hiiro," Usagi said, flinging her arms around him a tight hug.

Hiiro caressed her cheek with his thumb. "What do you see?"

Usagi pulled back from him, spinning much like she had in their second meeting. Then she stopped. Faced him. And smiled.

"Everything."

A smile tugged on Hiiro's mouth before Usagi closed the space between them.

"_Arigatou_," she said.

"For what?" Hiiro replied.

"Everything and nothing," Usagi said. She couldn't get the smile to come off her face. She was insanely happy.

Hiiro captured her lips in his briefly.

"Hiiro, I – well I know we haven't really know each other very long, you know? – But – but –"

"But what?" Hiiro asked, amusement in his eyes at her stuttering, for she was very rarely at a loss for words.

"_Ai shiteru_," she all but blurted out, her cheek burning.

Hiiro almost smiled this time. Almost. "Usa, you changed me... somehow. I don't know how you did it either."

"Magic," Usagi said playfully.

"If you want to call it that, then do so... _Ai shiteru,_" he whispered.

~~

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Author's Note: Dedicated to all the Hiiro/Usagi fans out there. Yeah, so, I might make another chapter or sequel or something to follow this story, but it all depends on what you guys thought about this story. If I do, then I'll go into more detail about Level J and all that other junk.


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